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Who Plays Games On Mac OS X? POLL
- Thread starter Realnanners
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As Antonis linked the Apple supported list, yes it is supported. I have run Windows 7 on a late-2013 27" iMac running Yosemite and I installed it via the bootcamp assistant in Yosemite, etc. Of course, I am assuming the models listed in your sig are still current with what you have. Those are not too new to still be supported.
How many times does that tired old conversation need to take place? To each their own is really just so much better than the back and forth don't you think?
Anyway, hopefully Metal is going to make that less of an issue but even then I suspect purists who require maximal FPS will still be rebooting to Windows or playing on Windows boxes. Whatever floats their boat is fine but so is whatever floats mine is how I see it.
I often wish we had a subforum for Windows gaming in the same way that we have one for console gaming.
Starcraft on Mac OS X. While I have a Windoze partition, I do not game on it whatsoever. Yes, am envious of game & speed on Windoze platform but I blame only Apple for the state of gaming on Mac OS X. Metal on El Capitan is only an iOS carryover showing how Apple has relegated Mac OS X to 2nd Class citizen. So third party game developers that jump onto the Metal bandwagon solely will also thus be limited by the Metal API regrettably... Until Apple gets out of its iOS centric tunnel vision, Mac OS gamers will remain a 3rd world citizen of gaming.
That all being said, I hope that whoever bought the rights to PAX Imperial from THQ will bring out a new version release on Mac OS X.
That all being said, I hope that whoever bought the rights to PAX Imperial from THQ will bring out a new version release on Mac OS X.
A few reasons.
OS X ports using OpenGL are often perform a lot worse than their DirectX equivilents on Windows.
Many Macs nowadays have laptop hardware with weak GPUs, not very good for gaming. Even their desktop models such as the Mac Mini and now the iMac are based on laptop hardware.
Less games. OS X has a lot less games available than Windows and unless they're on SteamPlay, they're often much more expensive too.
I don't know much about Metal. I wonder how it will effect the porting game?
I'd be against a seperate Windows game subforum, due to cross platform games and discussions about them. As is, if a game is Mac, PC, or cross platform, I'd request authors to make that clear in their OP.
I don't think that it has to be that bad, necessarily. Metal is the low-level modern API that was missing till now, that will allow Macs to get rid of the bogged openGL. Everyone is moving towards the same direction; Microsoft with DirectX 12 and Linux with Vulcan, are all getting closer to h/w to reduce overhead and increase the performance. The fact that is coming from iOS is not actually a problem; iOS is a very well-established platform and includes people that already know how to use Metal.
The only thing in question is if Apple will do all the right moves to take advantage of this and push Mac gaming forward.
Well, I have a late 2014 Mac mini, and since Apple announced metal for the Mac, I am hoping game performance gets 10 times better!
One further reason I forgot about was backwards compatibility. OS X has awful backwards compatibility compared to Windows, meaning that older games do not work unless you own the older hardware for them. This is also a reason why I don't use any of the consoles since they all (apart from the xb1 as of recently) appear to completely shun their previous collections of games. OS X does the exact same thing, meaning Windows is the only real option for playing both new and old games.
Nostalgically, I remember a time when the MacOS (pre X), Mac games had better longevity than Windows.
I wonder if this is a reason to go with Mac games on Steam, if this aspect is mitigated somewhat. I'd have to research, but are there old Mac games on Steam that are playable regardless of what MacOS you have installed?
You should support Mac Game development, even if the port is bad or 80% of the quality of the PC version. I have over 90 Mac Games on Steam alone, with Origin and Mac Game Store adding another 10 titles or so.
Buy it, install it and play it. Why? because if you install it, the mac game developer will get part of their share of income from the sale price. I believe I read it here somewhere (feral interactive dev - i think it was eddie?) that if you don't install a game within a week that it was purchased under "Steamplay" the mac devs don't get their share of the money, and your purchase is accounted to "PC" bought game - not Mac. If you want more mac supported games, your going to need to show that purchases are being made to be played on a Mac.
Why is this important?
Because not too long ago, Mac Game Development was too far and few between, ports were even rarer. We had no Steam, everything was mostly shareware and you had Id, EPIC and Blizzard as the major Mac game developers. It was a sad time, so support your Mac game developers, otherwise we'll just be neglected again.
FYI - I have a nMacPro - D700, 32GB RAM - I have Bootcamp and can CrossFireX games in Windows which makes the games even better, but I still install the game on the Mac first, play it then install on windows to see the difference.
Most recent game purchase was ARK - Survival Evolved, sure its unplayable at high details on OS X, but I bought it to support mac game developers and play in Window-ed mode (its faster than full screen), 1280x720 and mid settings on OS X, lol. - it works.
Buy it, install it and play it. Why? because if you install it, the mac game developer will get part of their share of income from the sale price. I believe I read it here somewhere (feral interactive dev - i think it was eddie?) that if you don't install a game within a week that it was purchased under "Steamplay" the mac devs don't get their share of the money, and your purchase is accounted to "PC" bought game - not Mac. If you want more mac supported games, your going to need to show that purchases are being made to be played on a Mac.
Why is this important?
Because not too long ago, Mac Game Development was too far and few between, ports were even rarer. We had no Steam, everything was mostly shareware and you had Id, EPIC and Blizzard as the major Mac game developers. It was a sad time, so support your Mac game developers, otherwise we'll just be neglected again.
FYI - I have a nMacPro - D700, 32GB RAM - I have Bootcamp and can CrossFireX games in Windows which makes the games even better, but I still install the game on the Mac first, play it then install on windows to see the difference.
Most recent game purchase was ARK - Survival Evolved, sure its unplayable at high details on OS X, but I bought it to support mac game developers and play in Window-ed mode (its faster than full screen), 1280x720 and mid settings on OS X, lol. - it works.
Since OS X 10.0 to 10.3 were PPC exclusive and since Apple ditched Rosetta after 10.6, it's near impossible. I remember some universal binaries working well up until you had to upgrade OS. 10.7 was probably the worst for me when it came to compatibility. Many apps and games broke and I began to give up on OS X.
I really like playing game but i'm using Macbook Air. Can you give me any suggestion to playing game on Mac?
What graphics in your model? You can check by going to "about this mac" and it should be listed there. Anything after the x3100 is half decent however you will not be playing cutting edge games with the settings cranked but you should be safe with 3D games prior to 2010 and/or more casual newer games, 2D stuff like Trine, Walking Dead, Limbo etc... I would install the Steam client and take a browse around, you can narrow your search there to just Mac games. I've got roughly 50 games through Steam that are playable on Mac OS.
Steam also has a wealth of older classic titles too, for example right now I am playing through System Shock 2 and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, both of which you could easily play. Steam also has the Half Life series and Portal series which should be playable on a MacBook Air (again unless you have the x3100 that came in the original MBA in early 2008, that will struggle).
I can remember back in the days of OS9 being able to play OS7 games. Those days are gone...
Just don't make the assumption (not saying you are) that games on Steam are always a better deal. I just purchased Elder Scrolls Online:Tamriel Unlimited (gamesdeal.com) for half of what Steam was charging.
No doubt, I often buy games from Humble Bundle and other digital vendors that allow me to redeem the game on Steam. But for a beginner Steam is a good place to start browsing, all of the games listed have pretty accurate user reviews and system requirements.
Steam does have some great deals, and in many (but not all) cases, that is the only source for a game. The shocker is when I bought a game at Best Buy by a major game developer and ended up having to authenticate it on Steam. That might have been Dragon Age by EA/Bioware.
Buy at retail, activate on Steam has been around since the service started with the release of Half-Life 2. It's far less prevalent now that physical releases of PC games are becoming thinner on the ground, but it still happens. I just did it recently with Wolfenstein: The New Order, and I believe Grand Theft Auto V is the same way.
But HL2 is a Valve game. Valve = Steam, EA/Bioware does not.
In the case of ESO, they have their own server, there is no need to negotiate through Steam to access, update, or play it. Saving money or convienence is not part of the equation for this example either.Dishonored, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the original cut), Murdered: Soul Suspect, and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin are not Valve games but had physical releases with Steam activation. And those are just ones I came up with off the top of my head. There have been dozens, if not hundreds more.
Also, Dragon Age: Origins came out in 2009 when you could buy most EA games on Steam. EA split from Valve around 2011 when their own Origin client was released.
Also, Dragon Age: Origins came out in 2009 when you could buy most EA games on Steam. EA split from Valve around 2011 when their own Origin client was released.
I don't have much time for playing, but when i do, i'm playing LOTRO. Only game since 2011. A MMO has the advantage that you can always dive right in, no matter how long you haven't played and you are not forced "to play another level" or similar.